Gadgil, who still has six months of service left, has now been posted as the chairperson-cum-managing director of a state-run statutory corporation, the Maharashtra State Financial Corporation, which is considered a side posting.

This is a second major career setback for Gadgil since the Fadnavis government came to power in 2014. In April 2018, Dinesh Kumar Jain (also 1983 batch) had superceded her to become the state’s chief secretary, after which Gadgil had gone on a month-long leave before returning to work. Despite being the senior-most IAS officer, Gadgil was also kept out of the Civil Services Board.

Kishor Nimbalkar, an IAS officer who is 20 batches junior to Gadgil, has been named her successor in the Relief and Rehabilitation Department.

Gadgil’s husband, Anant, is a Congress legislator.

Her transfer comes at a time when drought relief work is ongoing on a large scale in the state. While sources close to the Chief Minister’s Office said that Fadnavis wasn’t too pleased with Gadgil’s work, a section of senior bureaucrats opined that she had been treated unfairly.

Gadgil refused to comment on the development, but sources said she is expected to join her new posting and continue in public service.

With Gadgil out of the state secretariat, Jain is now the senior-most bureaucrat in the state secretariat. Last June, Fadnavis had moved out former Additional Chief Secretary, Sudhir Srivastava (1983 batch), who was senior to Jain, and appointed him the chairman of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. Meanwhile, Dr Nidhi Pandey (2001), who was previously the MD of the state financial corporation, has been posted as the Member Secretary of the 5th Maharashtra Financial Corporation.